‘China shock’ hangs over German leader Friedrich Merz’s first visit to Beijing

South China Morning Post · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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At a time when German industry is frequently slammed for being too slow and reluctant to change, there is one area in which industrialists have noticed rapid evolution.“The speed at which our position towards China has changed and at which our members are changing their minds on China – it’s China speed,” said Oliver Richtberg, head of the foreign trade department at Germany’s Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA).Richtberg’s group represents more than 3,000 of Germany’s “hidden champions”, manufacturers who make the parts and machines that power household brands and which for decades have been a bedrock of Europe’s biggest economy.Now, however, the manufacturers are in trouble, and Richtberg wants Chancellor Friedrich Merz to do something about it this week on his first trip to China as German leader.“We never have seen a challenge like China in the machinery industry before,” the senior VDMA official said. “They put their finger in our wound. They showed us where our weaknesses are.”Richtberg added that cutthroat Chinese competition was set to send the total number of German machinery jobs below the symbolic 1 million mark this year.